Annotation:Queen Mary’s Lamentation

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QUEEN MARY’S LAMENTATION. Scottish, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The air was published in several late 18th century sources, including the Caledonian Muse (1798). It was a composition of Tommaso Giordani [1] (1730-1806), a Neapolitan composer who spent much of his mature career in London and Dublin. He came to London with his father’s opera company, where he presented his first opera in 1756. In the next twenty years, still based in London, he composed three other operas, plus arranged other works; he then removed to Dublin and produced seven more operas. His output included sacred music, songs, cantatas, canzonets and chamber music, and his keyboard music was very popular in his time, rivaling J.C. Bach’s, particularly with amateur musicians.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 52, p. 20. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. IV), c. 1810; p. 136.

Recorded sources:

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